Covid Shrapnels
Covid19 has changed the world. Recently I spent some time reflecting on the pandemic situation and how it impacted our lives in so many different areas. And I don’t mean big obvious ones, like deaths of our closest ones or going through Covid itself. I’d rather focus on all the little shrapnel fragments, impacting our realities little by little. They’re not big ones but they come in bursts.
Go online, they said
For some people working online was a dream dreamt for years. Unfortunately, the reality isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Going online requires people to work differently. Consider teachers, coaches, everyone who was working by spending a lot of time with others. The same goes for students and anyone participating in learning activities. Going online requires not only good intentions but also hardware like a laptop or PC. Even in modern times, this might be a no go for some people.
Remote is fun, but I didn’t sign for it
It’s easy to say let’s go online with everything. This in modern times means making your work remote as well. As a person who’s been working remotely for a few good years, I can tell that it requires to have a room, a space where you can focus. I can’t imagine working in a small apartment with kids and a dog and be productive. It’s simply a thing that people might have not planned or considered before. Having a room for work only? In some areas of the world and with some professions it’s either hard to make it with the level of income or even impossible. Beside the financial aspects, many people never considered working from home as an option because they like to work in a workplace, not their homes.
Kids are not all right
Kids got hit by Covid hard. Their usual socialization envir onment is gone. Talking over a tablet or a phone not always works and instead of being an additional activity now must do for the main one. The usual schedule of getting early enough to make it to a kindergarten or a school might also be altered. Having no external factors that motivate them or their parents to make it on time.
Habits no more
With gyms, cinemas, libraries, and many more closed, the old habits are no longer possible to be kept up with small effort. Maybe you’re a person who is just fine with doing 100 pushups every morning and to take a shower every single day. There’s a lot of people who aren’t. This isn’t a joke about a remote joke. This is a reality for some people out there.
Systematic inflow reduction and a dry vessel
All the items above should not be considered in isolation. I treat and think about them with a systematic perspective in mind. Think of a vessel with many inflows and many outflows. The level of a liquid in a vessel represents wellbeing. By reducing multiple inflows even by bit, the homeostasis that once was there might be gone. And there’s not that much to amortize it. Consider a moment when you were angry and you used jogging to let some steam off. Or maybe reading a book to inspire yourself when going to a workplace by a bus. Or any other option that is gone and now you need to actively search for its replacement. With many inflows affected, the vessel can get dry. And as in inflows and stock in systems thinking, it will take time to replenish it.
Summary
I have no magic pill nor magic solution. I do my best to keep various inflows a bit higher and think how to open a valve a little bit. I wish us, that our vessels with energy, humor and wellbeing getting a new wave of inflow soon.
